Today’s smartphones put incredible photo taking capabilities in a device that’s always at home in a pocket. Their front-facing cameras have spawned millions of selfies. But the sad secret about these narcissistic snapshots is that the front cameras of almost all smartphones lag significantly behind their rear cameras in terms of resolution even as smartphone companies are steadily improving selfie features.

ScopeCam is a simple phone device that clips on to a smartphone, allowing you to use its rear camera to take forward-facing shots. This gives you the best of both selfie worlds, being able to use the big screen of the phone to frame the photo and the full power of the camera to take the photo — well, almost the full power as there’s no way to turn the flash to the front of the phone.

Creator Adley Telfort assures that the ScopeCam can accommodate just about any modern smartphone. After all the cameras are usually in an upper corner or entered near the top, and there’s no software or power required (although perhaps a powered version could include its own flash. Best of all, the ScopeCam is very affordable at only $9 and is due in December. The campaign seeks $25,000 by September 24th.

The ScopeCam definitely appeals to people who appreciate the finer points of smartphone photography, but its ideal window may have passed. The inferior quality of the front-facing cameras hasn’t exactly held back selfies in an age of online photo sharing. Indeed, even the campaign reverses the terminology of front and rear cameras and the comparison shot it provides isn’t exactly a night and day difference. Furthermore, companies across the board are improving the resolution of their selfie cams to the point that they’re good enough and even building in some specific selfie features such as wide-angle lenses go get more of a group in the shot.